logging-http-client 2.32.3.1

A logging library built on top of the requests library to provide a familiar interface for sending HTTP requests.

Logging HTTP Client

A logging library built on top of the requests library to provide a familiar interface for sending HTTP requests with observability features out-of-the-box.

Table of Contents

• Background
• Usage
  • 1. Drop-in Replacement for requests
  • 2. Using the HTTP Client with reusable Sessions
    • i. Disabling Reusable Sessions For The HTTP Client
    • ii. Adding Shared Headers to the HTTP Client
    • iii. Setting the client's x-source
    • iii. x-request-id is automatically set
  • 3. Custom Logging Hooks
    • i. Request Logging Hook
    • ii. Response Logging Hook
  • 4. Default Logging Configurations
    • i. Disabling Request or Response Logging
    • ii. Enabling Request or Response Body Logging
• HTTP Log Record Structure
• Contributing
  • Prerequisites
  • Environment Setup
  • Code Quality

Background

The requests library is a popular library for sending HTTP requests in Python. However, it does not provide adequate observability features out of the box such as tracing and logging. As such, this library was built to decorate the requests library API to provide these opinionated features for common use cases.

Usage

The quickest way to get started is to install the package from PyPI:

pip install logging-http-client

For poetry users:

poetry add logging-http-client

1. Drop-in Replacement for requests

The library is designed to decorate requests library existing API. Hence, you can use it in the same way you would use the requests library:

import logging_http_client

response = logging_http_client.get('https://www.python.org')
print(response.status_code)
# => 200

Given it's built as a wrapper around the requests library, you can alias the import to requests and use it as drop-in replacement for the requests' library.

import logging_http_client as requests

response = requests.get('https://www.python.org')
print(response.status_code)
# => 200

The other HTTP methods are supported - see requests.api. Full documentation is at: https://requests.readthedocs.io

2. Using the HTTP Client with reusable Sessions

The library provides a LoggingHttpClient class which is essentially a wrapper around the core component of the requests library, the Session object, with additional features such as enabling reusable sessions or not.

import logging_http_client

client = logging_http_client.create()

response = client.get('https://www.python.org')
print(response.status_code)
# => 200

i. Disabling Reusable Sessions For The HTTP Client

By default, the LoggingHttpClient class is created with a reusable session. If you want to disable this behaviour, you can pass the reusable_session=False argument to the create method.

import logging_http_client

client = logging_http_client.create(reusable_session=False)

response = client.get('https://www.python.org')
print(response.status_code)
# => 200

ii. Adding Shared Headers to the HTTP Client

You also have access to the session object headers within the LoggingHttpClient class, so you can add shared headers to the session object just like you would with the requests library.

import logging_http_client

client = logging_http_client.create()

client.shared_headers = {"Authorization": "Bearer <token>"}

# To clear the headers, you can set it to None
client.shared_headers = None
# or delete the attribute
del client.shared_headers

iii. Setting the client's x-source

It's common to set a x-source header to identify the source of the request. You can set this header on the client by passing the soruce argument to the create method.

import logging

import logging_http_client

root_logger = logging.getLogger()
root_logger.setLevel(level=logging.INFO)

client = logging_http_client.create(source="my-system-name", logger=root_logger)

response = client.get('https://www.python.org')
# => Log record will include: 
#    { http { request_source: "my-system-name", ... } }

iii. x-request-id is automatically set

The library automatically sets a x-request-id header on the request, and is logged within the response as well. The x-request-id is a UUID that is generated for each request, and it's attached on both the request and the response logs.

import logging

import logging_http_client

root_logger = logging.getLogger()
root_logger.setLevel(level=logging.INFO)

client = logging_http_client.create(source="my-system-name", logger=root_logger)

response = client.get('https://www.python.org')
# => Both request and response log records will include: 
#    { http { request_id: "<uuid>", ... } }
# => The reqeust log record will also attach it as a header: 
#    { http { request_headers: { "x-request-id": "<uuid>", ... }, ... } }

3. Custom Logging Hooks

The library provides a way to attach custom logging hooks at the global level. They're intended to REPLACE the default logging behaviour with your own logging logic. Here is how you can apply:

i. Request Logging Hook

The request logging hook is called before the request is sent. It gives you access to the client logger, and the prepared request object. You can use this hook to log the request before it's sent.

import logging

from requests import PreparedRequest

import logging_http_client
import logging_http_client_config


def custom_request_logging_hook(logger: logging.Logger, request: PreparedRequest):
    logger.debug("Custom request logging for %s", request.url)


logging_http_client_config.set_custom_request_logging_hook(custom_request_logging_hook)

logging_http_client.create().get('https://www.python.org')

# => Log record will include:
#    { message { "Custom request logging for https://www.python.org" } }

ii. Response Logging Hook

The response logging hook is called after the response is received. It gives you access to the client logger, and the response object. You can use this hook to log the response after it's received.

import logging

from requests import Response

import logging_http_client
import logging_http_client_config


def custom_response_logging_hook(logger: logging.Logger, response: Response):
    logger.debug("Custom response logging for %s", response.url)


logging_http_client_config.set_custom_response_logging_hook(custom_response_logging_hook)

logging_http_client.create().get('https://www.python.org')

# => Log record will include:
#    { message { "Custom response logging for https://www.python.org" } }

4. Default Logging Configurations

The default logging comes with a set of configurations that can be customised to suit your needs.

i. Disabling Request or Response Logging

You can disable request or response logging by calling the disable_request_logging or disable_response_logging methods respectively. This will prevent the library from generating log records for requests or responses UNLESS you have custom logging hooks set.

import logging_http_client
import logging_http_client_config

logging_http_client_config.disable_request_logging()
logging_http_client_config.disable_response_logging()

logging_http_client.create().get('https://www.python.org')
# => No request log record will be generated
# => No response log record will be generated

ii. Enabling Request or Response Body Logging

By default, the library does not log the request or response body. You can enable this by calling the enable_request_body_logging or enable_response_body_logging methods respectively. This will log the request or response body in the log record.

import logging_http_client
import logging_http_client_config

logging_http_client_config.enable_request_body_logging()
logging_http_client_config.enable_response_body_logging()

logging_http_client.create().get('https://www.python.org')
# => Log record will include the request or response body (if present)

HTTP Log Record Structure

The library logs HTTP requests and responses as structured log records. The log records are structured as JSON object passed to the logger's extra keyword argument. The log records are structured as follows:

{
  "http": {
    "request_id": "<uuid>",
    "request_source": "<source>",
    "request_method": "<method>",
    "request_url": "<url>",
    "request_query_params": "<query_params>",
    "request_headers": "<headers>",
    "request_body": "<body>",
    "response_status": "<status>",
    "response_headers": "<headers>",
    "response_duration_ms": "<duration>",
    "response_body": "<body>"
  }
}

If any of those top-level fields are None, {}, [], "", 0, or 0.0, they will be omitted from the log record for brevity purposes.

Contributing

If you have any suggestions or improvements, feel free to open a PR or an issue. The build and development process has been made to be as seamless as possible, so you can easily run and test your changes locally before submitting a PR.

Prerequisites

• Python: The project is built with Python 3.12.
• Poetry: The dependency management tool of choice for this project.
• Docker: For containerisation support, so it can be completely built and run in an isolated environment.
• Make: For running common tasks such as installing dependencies, building the project, running tests, etc.

Environment Setup

Before opening the project in your IDE, I highly recommend running the following recipe:

make setup

This will create your Poetry's virtual environment, install the project's dependencies, set up the code quality pre-commit hook, and configure your IDE (VSCode and PyCharm) as appropriate.

Code Quality

We ask for adequate test coverage and adherence to the project's code quality standards. This includes running the tests, formatter, and linter before submitting a PR. You can run the following command to ensure your changes are in line with the project standards:

make check-code-quality

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